Broadcast Policy will be cancelled first if BNP comes to power: Moudud

The BNP will scrap the National Broadcast Policy first thing if it came to power, its policymaker Moudud Ahmed says.

No television station or newspaper would be closed down under any ‘pretext', he said on Friday at a discussion at the National Press Club.

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The former law minister said, "Everyone asks what BNP will do if it came to power. Will they run the country like Awami League? We want to say that we will bring changes to the 25-year-old political culture."

Reiterating his party's pledge to ensure media freedom, Moudud said, "BNP will first cancel the National Broadcast Policy if it came to power. No excuses will be used to shut down television stations and newspapers."

No journalist would also land in jail, he added.

He said his party would also ensure freedom and impartiality of all constitutional, democratic institutions including Parliament, the judiciary, Election Commission and Anti Corruption Commission.

Moudud called the incumbent Awami League-led government 'cruel'. "There is no politics in the country now. The present autocratic government is crueller than the past dictators."

The government was trying to control everything in the guise of democracy, said the BNP leader who served autocrat Gen HM Ershad.